1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording medium in which main information pieces such as music data or the like and character information indicative of the contents of the main information pieces are recorded. The invention also relates to a reproducing apparatus for reproducing recorded information by playing the information recording medium.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in an information recording medium in which a digital signal is recorded, management information called TOC (Table Of Contents) indicative of an index of the main program data is recorded in an area other than the area in which main program is recorded. For example, in an information recording medium in which a music program is recorded as main program data, the TOC includes information such as time code value and music number of each music piece with respect to all of music pieces recorded in the information recording medium, time code value when all of the recorded music pieces are reproduced, and the like. Furthermore, there is a case where character information such as a name of each of the recorded music pieces and the like is recorded in the TOC area.
By the management information of the TOC as mentioned above, a high speed access such as a search of a head part of each music piece in accordance with a desired order of the operator can be realized when the information recording medium is reproduced by the recording information reproducing apparatus. Especially, in the case of an information recording medium in which character information has been recorded, the character information regarding a music piece which is presently being reproduced can be displayed on an information display unit of the recording information reproducing apparatus.
When the information recording medium in which the character information is recorded in the TOC area is reproduced, conventionally, the character information is displayed in one line as a continuous character string on the information display unit of the recording information reproducing apparatus. Since the width of information display unit is not usually sufficient, character information is often displayed as flowing characters which flow from right to left.
There, however, was a problem that the operator of the apparatus needs some time to read the display contents of the flowing characters. Moreover, in the case of character information including a plurality of kinds of information, it takes time to recognize a delimiter of information, so that there is a problem in operability of a reproducing apparatus in which such character information is displayed.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an information recording medium which enables displaying a character string representing management information in a manner easily to view and to provide a reproducing apparatus for reproducing such a recording medium.
In order to attain the object, an information recording medium according to the invention is configured so that management information is recorded in a specific area, wherein a character string and a delimiter symbol indicative of a delimiter in the character string are recorded in the specific area.
An information recording medium reproducing apparatus according to the invention is configured to reproduce recording information by playing the information recording medium, wherein the apparatus has a display unit for displaying each of a plurality of character strings divided on the basis of the delimiter symbols at each of desired positions.
According to the invention, from an information recording medium in which a character string and a delimiter symbol indicative of a delimiter of the character string have been recorded in a specific area, the character string and its delimiter symbol are read, the character string is divided into a plurality of character strings, and each of the divided character strings can be displayed at a different position in the display unit.